Part 24: Billings, MT to Rock Creek, MT

20140724-28

The Trip

We reached Billings, MT late in the afternoon Wednesday after a substantial amount of freeway travel from the Little Big Horn area.  Our plan was to do laundry and a re-supply in Billings and visit the Red Oxx facility the next day to purchase several travel bags.  The following morning we did visit their facility and the owner, Jim, gave as a tour of his manufacturing shop and advised us that the "Red Ants Pants Music Festival" was starting the following day.  He said it was an easy day's travel away and we were headed that direction anyway.  When we finished at Red Oxx, we headed for lunch and along the way passed a custom hat store.  Curious, we stopped in for a look.  The sign on the store said "custom hats while you wait".  Which is true, if you wait 4 months.  The hat will be shipped to San Diego in early November.  Two hours and $600 later we headed out toward Big Timber, MT. 

The Photos

The photos below are what we saw.

We stayed at the Billings, MT KOA and it was quite nice (for an RV park).  They bill themselves as the "First KOA" for whatever that is worth.  Thor was a hit with the other campers (as it always is).  I took this shot the next morning when we were ready to leave.

The KOA was on the banks of the Yellowstone River.  The river was flowing fast and strong.

The level of the river has receded somewhat from the spring runoff maximum.  The reduced flow exposed a large gravel bar.

Due to the hat shopping experience we ended up leaving Billings at about 1600hrs, so we did not travel far before stopping for the night.  Due to timing constraints we ended up at another KOA in Big Timber, MT.  This one was adequate and it's only reason for existence is that it is next to the freeway.  But, it served our purposes with a shower and electric service.  The next morning we headed into Big Timber to get supplies and then headed north about 20 miles into Big Timber Canyon for lunch.  Our late departure from Billings precluded camping in the canyon.  The photo above shows the approach to Big Timber Canyon.

Our original plan was to go to Big Timber Falls, but our late departure from the camp resulted in a lunch stop only.  After eating, we continued north toward White Sulfur Springs and the Red Ants Pants Music Festival.

We arrived late in the afternoon and there were hundreds and hundreds of motor homes and trailers already on site.  In addition, there were a large number of tents.

The whole festival was hosted in a large hay field, but it had been reasonably well planned.  Passage ways had been marked with chalk lines.  Porta-potties and shower facilities were provided.  Since the area was so large, the organizers provided "shuttle service" via horse-drawn wagons so the festival goers could easily get from their camp areas to the venue.

Major intersections were marked with colored flags like the white one in the distance in the photo above.

The vendor area was inside the paid acces area so to get food, you had to pay for entry.  The prices were rather steep at $55 per person per day.  We arrived sufficiently late the first day to cause us to decline, but we did purchase tickets the next day.

From the rear, the stage looked rather small.  Note the large tour bus for one of the bands.

But from the front the stage was more than adequate.  Most folks brought their own chairs into the venue but the organizers did provide covered seating.

The open seating area was fully exposed to both the sun and wind.  Sadly, it was rather hot and windy resulting in nice clouds of dust from the constant passage of foot traffic.

I estimate there were 10,000 folks that attended.

As is the norm with such events, there were legions of vendors hawking "stuff" including food, liquor, water, clothing, jewelry, etc.

Both Kathleen and I expected country western or blue grass music, but the bands were more progressive folk music.  Oddly, the headline act was Charlie Pride.  When Kathleen was reading the play bill and asking if I had heard of any of the artists my response was "No.  No.  Nope.....No".  When she read Charlie's name my response was "Is he still alive?  Jeez, he would have to be about eighty now".  Turns out I was wrong -- he is only 79.  We did not stay for his performance.  We were generally underwhelmed by most of the acts, so we left on Sunday morning.

On our exit from the festival we passed this Rokon on an Airstream trailer.  The Rokon is a 2-wheel drive motorcycle.

A parting shot of the Red Ants Pants Music Festival.  The dust clouds are visible to the left of center in the photo above.

From White Sulfur Springs, we headed north on the dirt into the Big Belt Mountains.

The Big Belt range is not particularly tall but the area was beautiful.

We passed the Smith River valley and then descended into the rolling plains of the Missouri River valley.

Next to the road we spotted a missile silo.  I am not sure if this is a Peacekeeper on an MX silo.

We hit I-15 and decided to head south and came upon a scenic overlook on the Missouri River Canyon.  The sign tells the story.

There had been substantial volcanic activity in the area resulting in steep cliffs.

We traveled on the interstate for 60 miles or so and then headed back onto the dirt into the mountains northwest of Helena.  We ended up remote camping on a ridge near Marysville.  The ridge had an awesome view of the Helena valley to the southeast.

We BBQ'ed a great steak from local beef and settled in for a movie.  The winds on the ridge were calm and the temperatures were mild.  Next morning we continued to the southeast toward Avon.  The meadows on Mt. Belmont were lush with wild flowers.

We could see the small community of Avon in the valley beyond.

Some of the areas on the flanks of Mt. Belmont were damaged by bark beetles.  The beetle kill area is grey.  This area has also been logged resulting in the sparse areas.

We traveled to Philipsburg, MT then west and north into the Sapphire Mountains via Rock Creek.  There was some rich farmland in the Rock Creek Valley.

We selected a nice creek-side camp site with a nice view of the meadows.

Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2014, all rights reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.